How Much SHOULD a 9 month old eat?

I have no idea the answer to this question. Brooks is still nursing several times a day (5-7), but the dude eats like a horse. One day for breakfast last week he ate, an egg, ¼ of an avocado, ½ cup of strawberries and a banana. He doesn’t eat like this all the time, but it’s not unusual.

Upon returning from our camping trip we had nothing thawed in the house, so we decided to continue our mini vacation to one of my favorite restaurants, Hooters. Normally this is not the place who find synonymous with my name, but I LOVE Hooters 3-mile Island chicken wings, and since I can have gluten and dairy again it was such a nice treat.

We decided to order Brooks something off the children’s menu since there was so much heat in the sauce. Got the dude 5 chicken wings, figured he’d eat two and the banana we brought him. We fed him the banana first and gave him some of his O’s while we waited for our food. Once it got there John and I pulled the chicken off the bones and broke it into smaller pieces. Brooks couldn’t get to it soon enough, he was a man on a mission, a man who had “hiked” 5 miles that morning and needed to recharge. He ended up eating all 5 of the chicken wings, sans the skin. He eats like a 3 year old, and he’ll eat just about anything. I hope this continues for forever and eating isn’t a battle at every meal *fingers crossed*.

Here he is lounging in his high chair at Hooters.

Trimming the Grocery Budget

I do envy the coupon people that are out there. The Krazy Koupon Ladies, and Extreme Couponing blow my mind. But it never really worked for us, I admit to not being as dedicated to it as some, but we don't buy processed or prepared foods, with a few exceptions, but as my friend Kayla can attest I don't have ketchup in my house.

When I got laid off after Brooks was born we knew that we had to cut our expenses and since we were spending about $1800 a month on food we knew that was a great and easy (or so we thought) place to start. That amount includes all food and beverages, my morning lattes, John's expensive beer, and of course our daily lunches out.

We had originally wanted to cut the food expenses down to $100 a week, but after 3 weeks we found out that this wasn't possible unless we really wanted a decline in quality. So we bumped that budget up to $125 a week. This line item includes groceries AND eating out. Oy!

It wasn't difficult at first since we were all home all the time, our garden was producing and we were spending very little. Then local fresh fruits and veggies started to dry up with the winter and our food costs increased. So we had to stop eating out almost all together until we figured out how to shop smarter.

One cost cutting measure was to cut back on our quantity of meat. The average adult is supposed to eat 3-6oz of meat at a meal. Most people eat 8-10oz, but at $7.99/lb for steak, if we wanted to eat it we had to cut it back, so we did. We allow ourselves to load up on veggies and grains, (mostly veggies), and a lot of meals will start with a salad. Cutting back for us was really a mind over matter principle. This also allowed for leftovers the next day, so we could enjoy the yumminess twice.

This is about the time we started planning our menus as well. Since we buy organic or grass fed meat it almost never goes on sale, so we can't plan our menus based on sale ads. So we got creative and had pseudo cooking contests to see who could get the price per serving on a meal down the farthest. So far we haven't gotten it under a dollar, but we're getting closer. I'm hoping if our garden yields more this year that we will.

The grocery store that we frequent, Wegmans, also has an iphone app as well as a great online site. This allows us to price shop before we get to the store. This saves me time and money. Because I don't go up and down every aisle I save time, and because I don't go up and down every aisle and buy crap I don't really need, I save money. Soon I want to really get into couponing though, I admit I am a HUGE sucker for a good deal. If I can get our grocery bill down more that means I can buy more standing rib roast or clothes. Umm....duh, sign me up.

Brooks eats what we do, but even if he didn't we would make his food. Not all of his meals are exactly what we eat either, so we had to incorporate his portion into our food bill. I know he's eating about $10 extra worth of food a week, but I don't really notice. I'm doubly grateful for a)not noticing and b) knowing that one day he will be eating $10 more worth of food an hour.

So what do you do to help on your grocery budget?

Please Pass the Salt

Saturday Brooks was not himself and John had rehearsal, we were going over for lunch anyway and ended up just staying. It's a good environment for him there, lots to look at, different people, rehearsal, and TONS of natural light.

I didn't bring dinner with us, so I ran out to the grocery to pick something us for all. I decided to check out the baby food section to see if there was a meal that Brooks could eat. I admit this was TOTALLY selfish, since I really wanted chicken parmesan and a) didn't want to share b) it wasn't the healthiest for him. There wasn't anything no pureed in the organic section so I went to the regular baby food aisle. There I found several options, carrots, turkey sticks and other vegetables. I picked one up to check out the ingredients and nutritional information, that's when I saw 255mg of sodium in the carrots, 265 for the meat. I was amazed, the organic meal I had an entire lasagna dinner 55mg of sodium.

One of the first things I remember reading when we started Baby Led Weaning was the amount of sodium a baby should have. I also looked up and asked his doctor how much sodium he should have a day, anywhere between 325-600mg is good. So now I'm standing in the grocery shocked and amazed by the amount of sodium in the carrots, JUST CARROTS!!!! I was so upset for so many reasons.

First, the non organic food is 49cents per jar, versus the organic at 99cents. If you have to cut back on your grocery bill or don't know to look at nutritional information, what are you going to chose?

Secondly, there is no reason for the vegetables to have so much salt. Babies kidneys can't process that much. It also puts the taste of salt in their mouths so they become accustomed. As they grow and mature what do they want...SALT! I can't believe that this is not a correlation to childhood obesity.

On a positive note, parents have several options now. I understand giving your child what you are eating may not be your cup of tea or may not work with your lifestyle. You can easily and quickly make your child's food in advance by making purees and freezing them. My personal favorite of Baby Led Weaning or organic baby food options. We just need to educate people out there, and remain vigilant for our children's health.

Oh and Tyler Florence has a line of baby food called Sprout, it's the one we bought the other night. Brooks LOVED it. I got a few more pouches to keep around, in case we are out and about and what we're eating doesn't work for him.

Your Baby Eats What?

Before Brooks was born we read about a philosphy called Baby Led Weaning. Basically your baby eats what you're eating. No purees, no cereal, etc. We do a modified version of BLW. We felt it necessary to do it this way in order to incorporate enough food into his diet slowly, plus I was gluten and dairy free.

We started with sweet potatoes, a nice yummy 2 inch or so roasted piece of sweet potato. That was 2 months ago, since then his diet includes, squash (acorn, butternut and summer), asparagus, green beans, white potatoes, bananas, quinoa, beef, chicken, avocado, grits, just to name a few. He doesn't like celery or eggs and as of yesterday quinoa isn't one of his favorites, but we'll try that again next week.

It's terrifying at times to give him food and listen to him gag, but he's never choked (knock on wood). We did make sure we knew the baby Heimlich before this all began. We also waited till he dived bombed our plates until any solids were introduced. Though once he started there was NO stopping him.

Besides him dive bombing our plates we knew he was about ready to start this, he had a pretty good pincher grip and was able to sit up unassisted.











Look at that grasp

BLW has really helped with his hand eye coordination. He's not perfect, but he's pretty freaking good. He's able to get a bottle in and out of his mouth as well as tipping it further up as he eats. He's also able to drink water out of his sippie cup unassisted. He doesn't drink all of the water in the cup, but since he tilts it, we like to fill it too high so he doesn't have a problem wetting his whistle.










Look at this contended avocado filled face.












If BLW hadn't worked for us then there are other options. But so far it is working, We don't have to cook, prepare and then freeze his food, don't have to buy jars of baby food and we know where all of his food comes from and how it's prepared. Woot!